The Sane Approach

The splendid Stuart Reid writes:

The only sane approach to Islam is one of moral seriousness - the Pope's approach - and that Anglo-America has failed in this respect, too often descending into sentimentality and hysteria.

Sentimentality leads to false liberalism - in particular, to the absurd notion that we must never discriminate against any minority religion - while hysteria leads, or has led, to the slaughter of Arabs in the "war on terror".

It is still hard to see this war as a Catholic war. In its most egregious manifestation, in Iraq, it has been condemned both by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

No Catholic is bound to accept a pope's view on whether a particular war is just, of course, but perhaps in the light of all that has happened since the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003 - the scores of thousands of Muslim deaths, the terrible suffering of the Church in Iraq, the strengthening of the mullahs in Iran - hawkish Catholics might consider that they were wrong and Rome right.

Even on the right, there is cafeteria Catholicism.

In the meantime, as we mark the 70th anniversary of the Second World War - the so-called "Good War" - we might recall Benedict XVI's words in an interview he gave in August, 2006: "[W]ar is the worst solution for all sides. It brings no good to anyone, not even to the apparent victors. We understand this very well in Europe, after the two world wars." the only sane approach to Islam is one of moral seriousness - the Pope's approach - and that Anglo-America has failed in this respect, too often descending into sentimentality and hysteria.